and this is where boehner is running into trouble. do you think they'll eventually put a rate increase on the table? >> they're either going to do that or take us into a very dangerous fiscal situation over the cliff. this is a loosy in the football situation and the president says, i'm not going to kick again until you show me some serious commitment. and keep in mind, this is the republican leadership that supported the $718 billion of savings in medicare that was part of the health care provisions to extend the life of medicare, and then ran against it, as being something that was stealing money from medicare. so it's not even just a matter of putting those ideas on the table, but willing to be consistent about it. but i think what you see right now from the white house is a deadly seriousness about this balance of getting our fiscal house in order, but also making sure we make the investments in the middle class to grow, and they're looking for a partner here. they've got to have a partner who's willing to put some facts on the ta